You
by godtierGrammarian
Summary: When Link is eight, new neighbors move in across the street, and so begins the greatest adventure of his life. Modern AU Midlink. Rated T for some language.


When Link is eight years old, new neighbors move in across the street. Their daughter is his age or maybe a year younger, with wild hair (the word "red" doesn't even come close to adequately describing its flaming sheen). Her name is Midna, apparently, and she's not the least bit impressed by his big red bike with white wheels that he just learned how to ride without training wheels. She often zooms by him on the sidewalk astride her own beloved purple scooter, wearing a gray helmet with volcano stickers on it, and her hair sticks out everywhere, and sometimes when she sees him she turns her head and sticks out her tongue through the gap between her front teeth.

She is trouble waiting to happen, she is bandaids on scuffed knees and elbows, shoelaces tied clumsily, big poufy skirts worn over jeans with holes in them. She decides she's his friend without him knowing it and the next thing he knows she's in his kitchen at all hours of the day, raiding the fridge, dripping her cherry-or-sometimes-orange popsicle all over the floor and her shirt. She teases him and chases him across the yard and trips him when he's not looking, and she always manages to find his green lightsaber no matter how well he thought he hid it this time. She is swagger and confidence and words his parents told him never to say; she is fury and laughter and flame.

Sometimes her cousin Zant comes over; he's got the same hair as her except on him the flame is dull, maybe because he wears it in the most horrible bowl cut ever. On these days Midna is sulky because she's expected to stay home and babysit her clingy cousin, even though sometimes she sneaks away to hide in the treehouse in Link's backyard for a while ("Don't tell Zant or I'll have to kill you," she whispers conspiratorially, and in response Link crosses his heart and hopes to die). At the end of the day Zant's parents leave dragging their son behind him, and he's throwing a royal tantrum, shrieking and pounding the ground because _he doesn't want to go_ , even though Midna tried to ditch him at the earliest possible moment. Link watches the family drive away in their big silver van and thinks he hates that cousin, probably.

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A month after Link's ninth birthday his parents come home from the hospital with a baby brother. Shortly after, a great congregation of relatives and neighbors gathers to wish them well. Link stands on the outskirts of the crowd, a bit shy despite his lingering fascination with the baby, and eventually, noticing the crowd, Midna wanders over, tugs on his shirt, and demands to know what's going on. Link obligingly explains about the new baby, and Midna's incessant questions drag out answer after answer, the baby's name is Colin, he's Uli and Rusl's son and don't ask where he came from, the baby's not his real brother, at least they're not related or anything, Link was adopted when he was a baby. Midna listens in (mostly silent) fascination as he explains to her that he doesn't know a lot about his birth parents except that they died in a car accident when he was a baby (like a lot of other parents in books, apparently, but he's at least grateful his weren't shot down by a Dark Lord; Midna grins in appreciation of the reference to the wizard books she loves). In the end, she doesn't really care that he's adopted, but she thinks a little brother is kind of cool, so long as he doesn't turn out like Zant. Link smiles at this, and then he's being summoned by his family to come join the chaos of a party, so he waves goodbye from between the legs of uncles and aunts and Midna wanders away to wreak havoc on the neighborhood.

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When they're both ten years old, for Midna's birthday, her family adopts a dog, a huge monster of a mixed breed (although it's got a lot of sheepdog blood in it if the gray and white fur is any indication). The dog is enormous and fluffy and constantly dripping with drool, and Midna walks it over on a pink rhinestone leash and gleefully announces, "His name is Link," grinning when she sees the annoyance on the human Link's face. He knows she chose that name on purpose, because it would bother him to be named after such a clumsy, slobbery dog. He glares halfheartedly at the beast and it pants at him joyously through the curtain of fringe that covers its eyes. Midna loops the leash over her wrist and wiggles a loose canine tooth with her tongue as Link and Dog Link get to know one another, and after she's had enough of waiting for them to get acquainted, she tugs on the lead and gallivants away with her beast in tow. Not long afterward Link watches from his window to see the dog bounding down the sidewalk with its leash secured to Midna's scooter, and she's forgotten her helmet and she waves as she zooms along wobbly wheels toward the place in front of Link's driveway where the sidewalk is uneven. He sees it coming and charges down the stairs and out the front door to find her pitched forward on the sidewalk, knees skinned through her jeans, her hair in her eyes and everywhere, and he's almost glad of it, because it covers the strangely foreign tears streaming down her brave cheeks.

His mom races out to gather Midna up in her arms and rush her inside, to sit her down on the washing machine to apply bandages to stinging knees while Link's dad holds the baby monitor in one hand and the phone to Midna's parents in the other. Link's holding onto Dog Link's leash in the middle of the confusion, and then the timer for the oven in the kitchen starts beeping unendingly and Colin wails through the baby monitor and Dog Link whines and wraps the leash around Link's ankles and-

Midna hops off the washer, knees covered in fresh Spider-Man bandaids, and scurries to the kitchen to turn off the wailing timer. Uli follows and pulls from the oven the frozen pizza everyone had forgotten about in the mayhem, now cooked to a perfect golden brown, and Midna eyes the steaming pizza and wonders aloud if she'd maybe be allowed to stay for dinner? Link waddles over, the leash still wrapped around his ankles, and offers the looped end to Midna, his face set in a deadpan expression. She obligingly untangles her dog (maybe because Uli's watching, because otherwise she'd have shoved him first to gleefully watch him fall) and runs Dog Link back to her house, asking permission to stay for dinner while she's there. And then she invites herself back in, sits at Link's place at the table, and takes the biggest piece of pizza with the most cheese on it (Link watches in disgust as she picks off the pepperoni slices one by one). Her manners are somehow impeccable, though, and by the time dinner is over Link's parents are absolutely in love with her. Link, sitting in the wrong seat next to Colin's high chair, watches her with sullen discontent and is too grumpy to say goodbye, almost. Nevertheless, she flashes him a winning gap-toothed grin and promises to come over tomorrow for a new bandaid because her mom doesn't get the Spider-Man ones. Uli smiles and accepts the promise graciously, and Link manages to mutter something resembling "Okay" before Midna's out the door and skipping home as if her scraped knees were a thing of the past.

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When they're eleven, Midna moves away. Link and his family go to say goodbye, and he expects Midna to be cool as ever, maybe grinning to show him that the stubborn wiggly canine tooth finally fell out and she got a dollar for it, look, a whole dollar- but instead she rushes at him distraught and grabs him in a hug (everyone's staring, and he's too surprised to hug back). And Midna bellows, "Washington!" and she's angry, she grabs his shirt and drags him up the stairs to her bedroom to show him the map on the wall, pointing so he knows exactly how far away Washington is (and he does concede that it is pretty far). She flops onto her bed, desolate, arms spread wide across the mattress. "I'm never gonna see you again," she says to the ceiling, which Link notices is dotted with fading glow-in-the-dark stars. He's uncomfortable seeing her so unhappy, so he says, "You know my address, right?"

She sits up, perplexed. "Yeah." And she rattles it off just like that to prove it.

"Write me letters," he says.

She scrunches up her nose. "Like with envelopes and everything?"

"Yeah," Link says, and it's obvious she disapproves. After a while he offers, "Postcards. You could do postcards. They don't need envelopes."

She ponders this, kicking her legs against the side of the bed. She doesn't say anything when Link's parents come get him to say it's time to go home. He trails after them uncertainly, looking over his shoulder at her, but she doesn't follow until they're halfway across the street going home.

"Wait!" she's screeching, tearing out the door and across her yard. Link turns in surprise and she runs up to him and says a bit breathlessly, "Postcards."

"Okay," he replies simply.

The reality of the situation seems to hit her and she says a bit despondently, "Link, I-" But then she sets her jaw and slugs him in the shoulder with as much affection as she can muster and all she says in the end is, "See you later." And then she's charging back inside, slamming the door behind her with so much force it surprises Link that she didn't break the glass.

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A month later he receives a Washington postcard, and on the back she tells him about how they had to drive _all_ the way there and how Dog Link barfed in the backseat and they stopped at this shady motel and a guy kept snoring in the next room and the new house is kind of cool, maybe, but Washington is boring without him so he better write back quick! Love, (she crossed this out) Midna.

The next postcard has a dog on it (she wrote "YOU" underneath its picture in big letters). She talks about school starting and how she hates it, especially her math teacher. She got into trouble for cursing, Dog Link chewed up her second-favorite shoes, and she can't find Spider-Man bandaids at the store here. _Washington sucks_ , she writes, _and so do you for not being here_. Love, (again crossed out carefully) Midna.

Another dog ("YOU") postcard comes and he replies as dutifully as he did the first two times (this time he chooses his own postcard with a grumpy-looking ginger cat on it and scrawls "you" underneath its face).

She replies with a vengeance, and includes a carefully depicted drawing of a Dark Lord zapping Link's likeness. _You suck_ , she writes, and the war is on. All throughout that year she and Link swap postcards and good-natured insults, until summer comes and Midna begs and begs to be allowed to stay with her uncle and aunt (and even Zant) if it means spending the summer with Link. But chaining her to Washington are softball practices and karate camp and maybe even ballet if Link remembers correctly, so she's left to barrage him with sulky postcards, and once she even sends him an envelope with pictures of herself inside, riding her scooter, walking Dog Link, going fishing, sliding triumphantly into home plate with an impressive plume of dust rising behind her. As always, he returns the favor.

At the end of the summer, though, he sends her a cat ("you") postcard and never gets one in response.

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Years pass and he's seventeen going on eighteen and it's summer again. He's taken up baseball and hockey, as a hobby, and he spends his time practicing his pitching with Zelda, whose family moved into Midna's old house. She's tall and lanky and pale, and quiet most of the time, but she's a surprisingly good second baseman and she tolerates being catcher when he needs her to. They're in his backyard tossing the ball back and forth in the shade when someone rattles the gate and yells, "Hey, turdface, is this you?"

Zelda turns with vengeance in her eyes at the insult until Link sees who's standing there. Tall and red-faced and absolutely beautiful, her red hair no longer sticks out everywhere but rather stays where she wants it somehow, and her front teeth don't have a gap anymore, but her eyes are the same and they are filled with the mischief and affection he's missed. And she's holding a picture of Dog Link and pointing to it. "YOU" is written across the bottom in big letters and he knows there's no way he's mistaken.

"Midna?" he gapes, and runs to open the gate (kept locked nowadays to keep Colin's rowdy friends out when they're not invited). He fumbles with the latch so she grabs him from over the fence and hugs him with all her might (he realizes she's tall, she's got at least half a head on him). Zelda follows slowly, beginning to realize that this is the Midna from all his stories, the Midna he's missed over the years, whom he's been too shy to send a postcard to. Link sees the smile form on her lips as she gathers all the pieces together, and a similar smile has planted itself stupidly across his face and no matter what he tries he can't get it to budge.

He worms free of Midna's killer hug and finally opens the gate for her. She steps into the yard, tousling his hair as she passes him, and looks evenly at Zelda, who manages to smile courteously.

Link paws at his hair to fix it (failing miserably) and introduces them. "Midna, this is Zelda. A, a friend. She, uh, lives in your old house now."

"Nice to meet you," Zelda says, a bit warily as she stares up at this stranger who to her has been nothing more than a larger-than-life character in stories, myths.

But Midna's face bears no ill will, and she returns the sentiment cordially, if not warmly. Zelda looks relieved when she thinks no one is looking, and Link's smile softens when he sees Midna roll her eyes.

"So," he manages to say, "what are you doing here?"

"Summer job, baby." Midna grins. "I managed to convince my parents to let me stay here with my aunt for the summer while I work." Link learns that her aunt and uncle divorced shortly after the big move to Washington, and that her uncle and Zant moved there, too, which sort of explained her silence the last few years. The rest of her explanation is that she was busy. She had friends and sports and maybe a boyfriend but she dumped him, he was a jerk anyway. And she apologizes over and over for not writing him. "It was just hard sometimes, you know?" she says, tilting her head with a tinge of sadness in her eyes. "You didn't write back so I thought maybe you'd forgotten about me."

"Never," he swears immediately, and Zelda looks between them and excuses herself, saying she's going to go get some lemonade. She doesn't come back, and Link resolves to thank her somehow later.

After Zelda leaves Link stops standing around awkwardly and invites Midna to the treehouse, where he continues the conversation, "I couldn't forget about you, I just couldn't. Every time Colin skinned his knee I'd see Spider-Man's face on his bandaid and I'd think of you."

Midna half smiles. "Yeah, it was hard for me to forget you, too. I mean, I named my stupid dog after you and all. I'd look at his goofy face and I'd just see yours, right?" She shoves the picture of Dog Link ("YOU") into his hands and then jams her fingers into her pockets.

"I missed you," she says finally.

He looks at the picture, the stupid dog picture, and replies, "Yeah, me, too."

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That summer she spends every hour she's not working with Link. They hang out in the treehouse a lot (Dog Link's picture has been tacked reverently to the wall there). Zelda even joins them sometimes, and the three of them just sit in the shade and make conversation and trade sarcastic insults. Sometimes Zelda invites them to her cool basement to play video games (she beats them easily at Mario Kart), and Midna swears revenge and challenges her to a round of Smash Bros., at which Midna is the undisputed champ. Link watches them duel it out, each determined to win, and smiles when he hears Zelda muttering insults she learned from Midna under her breath. Sometimes, Midna even drags herself to a few of Link's baseball games, sitting on the dusty bleachers next to Zelda, buying cheap ring pops at the concession stand and yelling at the umpire whenever he calls Link's pitches wrong. All in all, it's one of the best summers they've ever had, and when August rolls around they're reluctant to change their calendars to admit the new month.

When there's only two weeks left of summer, Midna meets them at the little diner on the corner for dinner. It's late, and the sun's setting by the time they finish eating, and Midna seems antsy, which is unusual. She keeps looking at Zelda, waiting for her to meet her eyes, and when she finally does Midna gives her a meaningful look, and Zelda suddenly excuses herself to the restroom, grinning from ear to ear, much to Link's perplexity. When she's gone Link looks at Midna's face and it's turned red as a tomato (or her hair). After a long silence she musters the courage to speak. "I need to ask you something," she says quietly. Fumbling, she pulls something from her pocket and doesn't look him in the eye as she shoves an unopened ring pop into his hand and mutters, "I want you to go out with me."

He's surprised, but when it hits him, really hits him, he grins from ear to ear (that explains Zelda's expression) and opens the ring pop wrapper. With great ceremony, he slides the ring onto his finger and announces, "I accept."

Midna finally looks at him and her eyes are wide almost with disbelief and she raises her hands to her face abashedly. "God, why? That was so dorky. I can't believe I actually did that, oh my God that was so bad."

He laughs, and there's no malice to it, only joy. "So? We're dorky." He sticks out his hand and admires the ring pop, looking up at her with amusement and pointed approval. "It's perfect."

She buries her face in her hands and when she finally looks up, she's laughing and there are tears in her eyes, happy tears, and she leans across the table and slugs him in the shoulder with as much affection as she can muster.

When Zelda comes back, she's got a huge smile on her face and a Spider-Man card in her hands (a bit rumpled from being in her pocket all through dinner) and inside it says "Congratulations, you dorks" and there's a carefully depicted drawing of a goofy gray-and-white dog and a grumpy-looking ginger cat, and underneath it says "You."

She offers to drive them home that night, but Link says, "We'll walk," so Zelda waves from the window of her white VW bug as she drives off and Link takes Midna's hand as they head off down the sidewalk in the gathering dark. He swings their clasped hands between them and she squeezes his hand, her courage returning to her now that he's accepted.

"I can't believe this," she keeps saying.

There's a smile on Link's face. "I can."

She turns to him, eyes demanding to know how, why.

He looks up at the sky and the first stars are coming out. "You always signed your postcards 'Love, Midna.'"

She remembers now. "I always crossed out the 'love' part. It sounded so dumb to me then."

"But not now?" he asks, playfully.

"Obviously not," she deadpans. "I gave you a fricking ring pop. I have surpassed dumb. Transcended it." She lifts their clasped hands high. "I am now a goddess."

"Of what, dorkiness?" he teases, and she lightly slaps at his arm with her free hand.

"Mean." But she makes a face that she forgives him.

He swings their hands again. They're getting close to home now, and the summer breeze ghosts cool over their skin in the twilight. As they walk beneath it, the streetlight flickers on, bathing the sidewalk gold. It buzzes gently above them, filling the comfortable silence between them.

"I just," Midna says, because she feels something needs to be said. "I just can't believe you don't hate me after all these years."

"I couldn't," Link says automatically, but she quiets him.

"I was such a jerk," she continues, and he realizes she's been wanting to get this out. "I left you hanging for what, like, five years? Five fucking years! And I came back out of the blue with a picture of my fucking dog and expected you to forgive me just like that? And then you did, because of course you would, it's you." She clenches her teeth and sticks out her jaw and stares at the sky for a while, and then she whispers, "Sometimes, Link... Sometimes I don't feel _worthy_ of you."

He's heard enough. He stops walking, and her hand untangles from his as she turns to look at him. And there are no words to say what he wants to tell her, so he steps close and touches her cheek and looks up at her (she's still taller than him) and he takes her hand with his other hand and murmurs, "You are more than enough for me."

And he kisses her, nothing big or dramatic. Just a kiss. Short and sweet.

When he pulls away she bites her lip, her eyes welling with emotion, and grabs him in a hug and squeezes tight and doesn't let go for a while. Then they walk the rest of the way home, where Midna's red rusty van is parked in the driveway, and she gets in and drives away, waving from the window.

Link waves back until the darkness swallows her up and he opens his door and goes inside, a ring pop on his finger.

When summer ends she goes home to Washington, but before she goes she grabs his shirt and kisses him soundly and presses something into his hands. Before he can say anything else, she gallivants out the door waving, refusing to say goodbye because that would be sappy, and Link looks down at the gifts in his hands.

There's a fresh ring pop, still in its wrapper. And there's a postcard with a cat and a dog on it, and across the bottom is written in big letters, "US." And she's left him a note promising (crossing her heart and hoping to die) that she'll write, and that she'll see him again soon, they have each other's numbers now, and if push comes to shove they can always make skype accounts or something. And she writes that she misses him already, and there's a picture, a carefully depicted drawing of him, not a dog but a person, and there are hearts around it ("Totally dorky, I know").

But despite all that, Link's favorite part is at the bottom, where in big letters in her handwriting it says two words.

Love, (and this time it's not crossed out) Midna.

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 **A/N: In case you're interested, this story has a semi-sequel/collection of one-shots in the same AU, called "You Again." If you're looking for a few lighthearted entries starring the "You" crew, be sure to give it a look.**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing, and for loving these kids as much as I do. (:**

 **Forever yours,**

 **godtierGrammarian**

 **edit 9/27: guess who finally got around to editing that typo. here's hoping it was one you didn't notice.**


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